Bytemarks
Tiny Palau envisions wired tourism
By Burt Lum
It's been close to a year since I last visited Palau, the tiny republic about 4,600 miles southwest of Hawai'i. Back then, its first Internet cafe, called Cafe@Palau, served its first cup of coffee. Now there are eight, with several more in the works.
Palau is in transition. Once a little-known destination in the South Pacific, the emphasis is now on tourism as the economic hope of the future. More than 70,000 visitors, primarily from America, Japan and Taiwan, visit annually. The impact of visitors, numbering four times the resident population, means change.
The airport I first landed in was torn down and in its place stands a new facility, though still rustic by modern standards. It's surprising how quickly change occurs.
The U.S. government pours millions of dollars into Palau, but the Japanese government is not far behind. Japan has paid for a $30 million bridge that connects the "Big Island" of Babeldaob with the population center, Koror. Its predecessor, built in 1977 and remembered fondly as the KB Bridge, collapsed Sept. 26, 1996.
You can see before and after shots of the KB Bridge at www.ketchum.org/bridgecollapse.html. By this October, the new bridge will be completed. To provide an updated comparison, I put together my own Palau page for your enjoyment. Go to www.brouhaha.net/palau for my latest pix from Palau.
Like any country in transition, traditional customs make way for modern conveniences and residents move off island to seek education and new opportunities. Sound familiar? I suspect many expatriates and visitors want to stay connected to Palau. So on this business trip, we worked with the Palau National Communication Corporation (PNCC) to help stream WWFM89.5 radio online, a first for Palau. Just launch your Windows Media Player and paste in this URL: mms://media03.netenterprise.net/palauradio. From a tiny country thousands of miles away, over satellite communications spanning half the globe, the Internet keeps the hearts of Palauans just a beat away. ;-)
Burt Lum, cyber-citizen and self-anointed tour guide to the Internet, is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.
